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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
thanks to M. Derenbourg for the book and thinks historians who are not orientalists will give it a hearty welcome, but regrets that the editor did not give a photographic reproduction of the manuscript, which is unique. By comparing the page of facsimile given with the published text it is seen that the editor has made some serious mistakes.
(11.) Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Schwarzlose. Die Waffen der alten araber aus ihren Dichtern dargeatelt, Leipzig 1886. The reviewer V.R[osen] thinks that the author ought to have consulted one of the Hadises. The book however is very learned and full of information.
(12.) Recueil de texts relatifs à l'histoire des Seljoucides, par M. Th. Houtema, Vol. I. 1886. This is the first volume of a work, in which are to be given the most important texts on this subject in the Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages. It contains the Persian texts of the history of the Kirman Saljuqs, compiled by a certain Muḥammad Ibrahim, who lived at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The text is given according to the only MS. known, unfortunately incomplete, belonging to the Royal Library at Berlin. We find in it part of the history of Chakir Bêg and
NOTES AND NOTE ON THE DERIVATION OF GUTTAPERCHA.
Gutta-percha. "The unknown person who first rendered the Malay word getah (sap, gum, bird-lime) by the Latin word gutta deserves credit for some ingenuity. The accidental resemblance of the two words and the adoption of the latter by botanists may, however, be misleading as to the true derivation of the term Gutta percha. Getah, in Malay, is the generic term for any kind of sticky stuff which exudes from trees, plants, leaves or fruit: perchah means a rag, bit, or strip of any stuff. Getah perchah would thus mean getah in strips or pieces (after being boiled) as opposed to the semi-liquid and sticky condition of the raw substance."-W. E. Maxwell, in Journal, Straits Branch R. A. S. No. 12 (1883) p. 207.
Gutta percha. Crawfurd in 1849 wrote as follows:
"Malay, gatta-parcha, the gum of the Pârcha tree. I was at first disposed to think that the last part of the word was pârchah, but this word, ending also in an aspirate, is Persian, and by no means likely to enter into the name of an indigenous plant, the product of which had not been an object of foreign trade." See Journal of the Indian Archipelago, Vol. IV. p. 184. Against
[DECEMBER, 1888.
Tughrul Bêg; and the history of the Kirmân Saljuqs from Q&dard (433-66) the founder of the Kirman dynasty, till its last representative, Muḥammad Shah (A.H. 579-82). Also the history of Malik Dinâr (A.H. 591) the prince of Ghazz, who overthrew the dynasty of the Saljuqs. and finally a short sketch of the fate of Kirmân till the year A.H. 619 when the power of the Qârâkhata'is was firmly established there.
(13.) New Publications of the Pali Text Society (London.)-The publications have been delayed a whole year on account of the illness of the chief editor, Mr. Rhys-Davids. In the Journal of the Society we have the story how Buddha gives six of the hairs of his head to some arhats who asked him for something belonging to himself. The Sandééa Katha, edited by Prof. Minayev: some interesting Notes and Queries by Rev. R. Morris, and a valuable excursus on Dévadáta (Death Messengers), somewhat overloaded with references to general European folklore.
(14.) Udanam, (hymns) edited by Paul Steinthal, London 1885. The book is made useful by its excellent indices,
W. R. MORFILL.
QUERIES.
this there is the fact that, the real gutta percha is produced by a tree called taban (misprinted tabau in Yule's glossary, p. 309) so that if the name is derived from that of a tree, it is one which produces "a spurious article:" (Dr. Oxley ini Journ. Ind. Arch., Vol. I., p. 22). But it has yet to be proved that there is a gutta-producing tree called Percha by the Malays. The Isonandra or Dichopsis is called by them taban. Percha does not appear as the name of a tree in the Malay dictionary of Marsden. Favre has perchah, as the name of the tree, differing from other lexicographers by inserting a final aspirate.
Pijnappel and Klinkert, authors of MalayDutch dictionaries, say that percha is the name of the tree which produces gutta-percha, but give no botanical name. Von de Wall in his Malay-Dutch Dictionary (edited by Van der Tunk, 1877) gives percha as the name of the tree which produces the best gutta-percha, and taban as that of a tree which produces an inferior sort ? The gum collected by Malays is boiled by them before it assumes the appearance which it presents as an article of commerce, and my experience is that they give the name of perchah to that kind of getah taban which hardens into strips in boiling. These are stuck together and made into balls for export. W. E. MAXWELL.
